A Symbolic Universe - Ernst Cassirer

...man lives in a symbolic universe.  Language, myth, art,
and religion are parts of this universe.  They are the varied
threads which weave the symbolic net, the tangled web of
human experience.  All human progress in thought and
experience refines and strengthens this net.  Physical reality
seems to recede in proportion as man's symbolic activity
advances.

He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms, in artistic images,
in mythical symbols or religious rites that he cannot see
or know anything except by the interposition of this
artificial medium.  His situation is the same in the
theoretical as in the practical sphere.  Even here man does
not live in a world of hard facts, or according to his immediate
needs and desires. He lives, rather, in the midst of imaginary
emotions, in hopes and fears, in illusions and disillusions, in
his fantasies and dreams.  'What disturbs and alarms man,'
said Epictetus, 'are not the things, but his opinions and fantasies
about the things.'

Ernst Cassirer

German Philosopher

From - An Essay on Man:
An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture

via - The Beauty We Love

~

Fun-Qi Art - 2009

Craypas oils
done with fingers

Illuminating the Way - Matt Licata

...there is something illuminating the way, but just what this is
cannot often be apprehended by ordinary means.
There is no external map here that you can rely on, only the
one that is written inside you.  While at times we sense the
presence of this inner guidance, it often comes by hidden
and symbolic means.  We must learn to listen for it in a
non-ordinary manner, not  just with our ears but with the
wisdom of the body, with the cells of the heart.

The mysteries of separation and union are already wired
into you... We are invited to meet them, in an inclusive embrace
of life -  the wholeness that we already are...

Matt Licata

~

Photo - Sunlight through a thinning cutting board...